A vigil is held in downtown Philadelphia on August 13, 2017 in support of the victims of violence at the 'Unite the Right' rally In Charlottesville, Virginia (Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images)

In some ways my late father was a brilliant man and even a visionary.

Whenever the discussion would center on the possibility of a nuclear war he would insist that it was not the greatest threat to the United States. He would then make a case that what would doom us first was a division in this country similar to the Civil War, whether the divide be over race, religion, economic status or anything else.

I bring this up because of the two stories that have dominated the headlines over the past week.

Threats posed by North Korea are obviously concerning, especially if you live in places like Guam, Hawaii and even Alaska. You have a fanatical leader whose behavior is unpredictable and seemingly might be more interested in garnering headlines than achieving peace in his region.

Some might say the same for our leader whose rhetoric frankly is at times scary but at least we have systems in place that prevent an individual with no concern for human life from going off the deep end. At least we believe that to be true.

However what took place in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend to me is much more concerning than North Korea because it once again showed that we are not all united in America. What we watched was frankly shocking and disturbing and exactly what my father feared would ultimately be our undoing right on our own streets and sidewalks.

What is especially frightening is that this was and will not be an isolated incident and in the future we may come to realize that our greatest enemy are those who look and sound just like us because they are us.

Our strength in this country is our ability to be united which we’ve shown throughout history. Without that the future is very much in question.